Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy By Tony Martin In September 1937, three years before his death, Marcus Garvey assembled a small group of his most trusted organizers For almost a quarter of a century he had led the Universal Negro Improvement Association, at its peak the largest international mass movement in the history of African peoples Now he wanted to pass on the lessons he had learned, to the group best suited tIn September 1937, three years before his death, Marcus Garvey assembled a small group of his most trusted organizers For almost a quarter of a century he had led the Universal Negro Improvement Association, at its peak the largest international mass movement in the history of African peoples Now he wanted to pass on the lessons he had learned, to the group best suited to carry the struggle forward For one month he instructed this elite student body, twevle hours a day, seven days a week The sessions were secret and much of the instruction was not written down The students did, however receive written copies of twenty two lessons, which Garvey called the Course of African Philosophy This fascinating distillation of a great leader s experience is published here for the first time.

Tony Martin

Tony Martin February 21, 1942 January 17, 2013 was a Trinidad born professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College He retired in June 2007 as professor emeritus after 34 years teaching at the Africana Studies Department, where he was a founding member.He was a lecturer and author of scholarly articles about Black History His written works about the plagiarism by the Greeks of African philosophy, and statements regarding Jewish involvement in the American slave trade have both been a source of ongoing controversy In October 1991, a Wellesley student, Michelle Plantec, while on hall duty, claimed that she saw Martin wandering in a female dorm in a restricted area, in violation of a rule requiring male guests to be escorted When she asked him about his escort, Martin, she claims, responded using profanity, accused her of racism and bigotry, and positioned himself so as to physically intimidate her Martin denied all these claims, and declared that a group of women accosted him rudely, despite circumstances that in his view made the legitimacy of his presence obvious In an interview with a campus newspaper, Plantec said I stopped him and said, Excuse me, sir, who are you with He looked at me and said, What do you mean I said, What Wellesley student are you with and at that point he exploded and called me a fucking bitch, a racist, and a bigot, among other things After all this, he went back into his meeting and said the only reason I had stopped him was because he was black.Out of this grew Martin s most famous book, The Jewish Onslaught Despatches from the Wellesley Battlefront The Chair of Martin s department at Wellesley, Selwyn R Cudjoe, labelled Martin s book Gangsta history, meant to demean and to defame others and to bring them into disrepute, rather than to enlighten and to lead us to a complex and sophisticated understanding of social phenomena It ought to be labeled anti Semitic The majority of the Wellesley faculty signed a statement condemning Martin s work for its racial and ethnic stereotyping and for its anti Semitism Martin s book was also criticized in a statement by the president of Wellesley College The book gratuitously attacks individuals and groups at Wellesley College through innuendo and the application of racial and religious stereotype Despite Professor Martin s incendiary words, and his attempt to portray Wellesley College as a repressive institution bent on silencing him, we will continue to recognize his right to express himself.In June 2002, Martin presented a talk entitled Tactics of Organized Jewry in Suppressing Free Speech at the 14th IHR Conference sponsored by the Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review is devoted to anti Semitic literature and especially Holocaust denial and has been linked to neo Nazi groups since 1995 it has been headed by a member of the white supremacist National Alliance.

Message to the People: The Course of African Philosophy By Tony Martin

Commentaires:

Andre

I ve recently taken to rereading books from my bookshelf to determine if their impact has changed over the years, or rather my perception of the effectiveness of the message has dampened In the case of Marcus Garvey s Message to the People, I would have to say no This book wasn t published until 1986, some 46 years after the passing of Garvey, but essentially it is the instructions, training and philosophy he left for all would be members and leaders of the UNIA Universal Negro Improvement Assoc [...]

A must read Put aside all the racist black white stuff, its a great book to guide anyone on their life s journey Great motivator to help you get where you want in life and tid bits to help you avoid trouble There s advice on education,character,God,etc And as we re on the subject of books according to Marcus Garvey in this book, pg 10 Never lend anybody the book that you want You will never get it back Never allow anybody to go to your bookshelf in your absence, because the very book that you ma [...]

Garvey pulls no punches in his characterizations of the Negro populace of his time, in his immediate area He misses the larger scope of a developing black conciousness in the early twentieth century The recent immigrant Garvey, looks around him and sees the need for an immediate change in the mindset of the black street hustlers and those mired in despair He sets out to formulate a personal development plan for his followers to spread throughout the masses His plan sounds similar to the turn of [...]

If possible I d give this 3.5 stars This text relies on strategy than sentiment, which while incredibly worthwhile and necessary didn t always ideologically align with my belief systems Of course that s just an over intellectualized manner of saying too much brain, not enough heart at times But, then too, perhaps I m relying too heavily on the value of emotion and compassion and failing to accept its dangerous qualities I also adamantly support unification between racial groups, though I d neve [...]

Organized in 1937 near the end of his physical and organizational life, The School of African Philosophy is perhaps the most complete distillation we have available of the lessons Marcus Garvey was able to draw from his 23 years of leadership over the U.N.I.A and A.C.L More than any other single manuscript in the New Marcus Garvey Library, it displays many of the theistic, mystic, agnostic, paternalistic and politically conservative views underpinning the vision Garvey developed within the organ [...]

Astounding The plan itself is constructed as precise as can be and handed down on a plate in book form The negro should indulge in every kind of business that is necessary to earn profit because it is by profit that he will be able to obtain life s necessities for himself and his race.

As the Charles L James notes in the foreword, some of Garvey s notions seem stuck in early 20th century moral assumptions in particular as they relate to interpersonal relationships However, the substance of Garvey s philosophy is as strong as ever and hinged upon his insistence on the education and self determination of Black Americans Added bonus this volume is small in size great for tucking into a pocket or throwing in your bag for some Garvey on the Go.

Important, but outdated in places I can t agree with everything he says as that would involve loss of friendships that are important to me, but I love the passion, the cause and his desire to help a marginalised people.